One man has become a behind-the-scenes force in the international art world after securing the return of art looted by the Nazis to the descendents of its original Jewish owners.

The return of "Seated Woman" by Henri Matisse to the Rosenberg family was his work. 

Two Turkish newspaper commentators went on trial on Thursday for illustrating their columns with a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed published by French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

Ceyda Karan and Hikmet Cetinkaya, writers at the secular Cumhuriyet daily, face up to 4 1/2 years in jail on charges of "inciting public hatred" and "insulting religious values" in connection with the cartoon. 

It was a symbol of the Mexico City landscape, zooming, honking and fuming in the mega-capital's infamously dense traffic. But the beloved Volkswagen Beetle is nearly extinct, a victim of anti-pollution campaigns.

A few "vochos," as the curvy car is known in Mexico, can still be spotted occasionally in the city's chaotic streets while so-called "Vochomania" clubs of collectors try to keep it alive.

The speaker of the German parliament on Wednesday said the slaughter of indigenous Namibians a century ago constituted a "genocide" that stemmed from a "race war."

Norbert Lammert, writing in a guest column for news weekly Die Zeit, said the Herero and Nama peoples had been systematically targeted for massacre by German imperial troops.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum, beating its New York archrival to the punch, announced Monday what it called the first retrospective of Irving Penn's photography in nearly two decades.

"Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty," opening October 23, will feature 146 photographic prints, many of them never exhibited or even seen before, it said in a statement.

An international human rights group has accused Myanmar's parliament of playing with fire by passing a bill regulating the right of women from the country's Buddhist majority to marry men from outside their religion.

Phil Robertson of New York-based Human Rights Watch said Wednesday the bill was related to a campaign by extremist Buddhist groups that have incited anti-Muslim hatred. Religious tensions have led to deadly violence, especially against Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar, who have felt compelled to flee abroad.

As a possible Greek exit from the eurozone looms ever larger, threatening to change the face of the euro forever, the currency's home city of Frankfurt is giving its famous Euro sculpture a much-needed facelift.

While the eurozone's leaders buckle down for what could be the most decisive talks in the relatively short history of the single currency so far, few will fail to see a certain symbolism in the dismantling and renovation of the 14-metre (45-feet), 50-tonne sculpture that has become one of Frankfurt's most photographed landmarks. 

A Buddhist monastery in Bangladesh is serving food to hundreds of poor Muslims during Ramadan, in a rare example of social harmony between the religions in the South Asian nation.

Dharmarajika, in the capital Dhaka, has become a hit on social media since it started distributing daily food packs for Muslims who break their fast during the Islamic month at sunset, known as Iftar.

Almost eight decades since Yan Guiru was gripped by terror as shells rained on her Beijing neighborhood in the opening salvos of war between China and Japan, she recalls with horror a conflict Communist leaders still use to legitimize their rule.

It was the night of July 7, 1937 when a barrage of unrelenting gun and cannon-fire erupted.

The idea was to conjure up a slice of Middle Eastern splendor, in Florida. Up went minarets and pastel-colored domes, and streets got names like Ali Baba and Aladdin.

The result -- the town of Opa-locka -- came to house the largest concentration of Moorish revival architecture in the United States.